Riz Ahmed is the first Muslim to be nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, which he did for his film Sound of Metal (2020) at the 93rd Academy Awards. Ahmed did win an Oscar at the 94th Academy Awards in the category of Best Live Action Short Film. Mahershala Ali was the first Muslim to win an Oscar for acting at the 89th Academy Awards. Ali is African American, and he represents a somewhat different experience than someone like Ahmed. Yes, Ali's experience can be rooted in bigotry and discrimination, and can be similar to Ahmed, but Ahmed's culture is different because he's of Pakistani descent. He comes from a culture that's more aligned with South Asia and the Middle East, which is a more unique experience. An argument could be made about previous actors who have been recognized who have that experience like Omar Sharif, F. Murray Abraham, Ben Kingsley, or Shoreh Aghdashloo, but when it comes to actors in the same age range as Ahmed, the only other person of note is Dev Patel who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his film Lion (2016) at the 89th Academy Awards also.
Patel isn't Muslim and he isn't Pakistani. Patel grew up in a Hindu household and a Gujarati household, but, as this television series indicates, people can confuse someone like Patel with someone like Ahmed, even though they look really different or distinct. It's interesting that around 2020 when it was announced that Daniel Craig was leaving the role of James Bond, Dev Patel's name was floated out there as a possible replacement. There have been articles since then where Patel has said that he doesn't want to play the role and he's pointed toward other people of color like Idris Elba as the next James Bond. Yet, in a British GQ magazine article, Elba doesn't seem that interested in the role either. In June 2025, it was announced that Denis Villeneuve would direct the 26th James Bond film, which has stirred up the conversation as to who should be cast in that role. That article by Jack King and Killian Faith-Kelly in British GQ reports that the role will likely by cast with a young British, white actor, but there is some speculation that it could be a person of color, such as Daniel Kaluuya, Regé-Jean Page, Henry Golding, Damson Idris, Aaron Pierre, and Paapa Essiedu. Also, on that list is Riz Ahmed who was asked about taking the role back in 2018, so it's something that's been on his mind for a while.
Here, Ahmed (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Jason Bourne) plays Shah Latif, an up-and-coming actor who has an agent who is getting him auditions for major projects like the next James Bond film and he's getting an audition as James Bond himself. His audition doesn't go well and his agent has to arrange a second audition in less than a week. This TV series follows Shah in the few days between those two auditions. At first, Shah tries to keep it secret, but it gets leaked to the press that he's auditioning to be the next James Bond. Shah feels like a proxy for Riz Ahmed himself, but not really. In 2018, when Ahmed was asked about being James Bond, at that point Ahmed had already won an Emmy Award and he was featured prominently in a Star Wars movie, so Ahmed had made a name for himself and achieved a level of fame that Shah Latif doesn't seem to have. Ahmed also has as a level of wealth that Shah Latif doesn't.
For example, I'm not well versed in Ahmed's personal life, but in 2018 after winning his Emmy and being in a Star Wars film, I doubt that he was still living at home with his parents. He could have, but it seems unlikely. Shah Latif is still living at home with his parents. His cousin also seems to live with them too, along with his cousin's sister, which I'm not sure is fully explained. There's some hinting as to why his cousins are living with them, but it's not explained in full depth. Despite the fact that Shah is auditioning to be Bond, it's suggested that he's had no success as an actor up till this point. According to that British GQ article, the actors in contention to be Bond do have some level of success. Shah calls himself a nobody, but the actors in contention aren't total nobody's. Each actor in the British GQ article have a recognizable résumé or some kind of prestigious background. There were some younger actors on the list who haven't done a lot but they have done projects that have been highly acclaimed, but nothing about Shah suggests that he's done anything of note. He might be too self-conscious or too self-critical to say what he's done, which has gotten him this audition, but his family members who are in this show would know and perhaps talk up Shah's work.
Guz Khan (Our Flag Means Death and Four Weddings and a Funeral) co-stars as Zulfi, the aforementioned cousin who is living with Shah and his parents. If you've seen the Netflix series Mo (2022), starring Mohammed Amer, the Palestinian-American comedian, Zulfi is very reminiscent of Amer's character in that Netflix show. Zulfi is an aspiring businessman, but he's not able to get a traditional bank loan or financing to start his company. Therefore, Zulfi has to hustle to try to get his business off the ground. Sometimes, his hustling means using whatever fame or connections that Shah has, which frustrates Shah, but it's clear that Shah and Zulfi grew up together. They're cousins, but behave more like brothers who bicker and pick on each other, as well as joke and laugh with each other.
Zulfi is also a grounding force for Shah. One of the themes of the series is the cost or price of success and fame, particularly in Hollywood. It's a theme that could be applied to success in the corporate world in general. That theme is selling out versus staying true to your roots. Shah getting the opportunity to play James Bond is great, but what is the cost or price? Is the cost him having to deny his Muslim or Pakistani roots? This series doesn't take us past the audition process, but one has to wonder if Shah were cast, would the subsequent film depict him expressing his Islamic faith or depict his Pakistani culture? The assumption would probably be no.
Patrick Stewart (X-Men and Star Trek: The Next Generation) voices a pig head to whom Shah has conversations. It's not said if Shah has some kind of neurodivergent or mental health issue. He seems to suffer from a general form of anxiety. He has hallucinations or walking dreams that affect him, but his anxiety manifests as this voice, which knows it sounds like Sir Patrick Stewart talking to him from a literal head of a decapitated pig. This pig is the one telling him that he has to sell out and basically deny his Muslim and Pakistani culture in order to succeed in Hollywood. It's ironic given how Muslims feel about pork and pork products.
There's an episode that suggests Shah's anxiety might be the result of a recent break-up with his girlfriend. This show does the thing that a lot of shows have done recently, shows such as Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024), Adolescence (2025) and The Studio (2025). This show does an episode that is basically a "oner" or the cinematography consists of one, continuous take. It's when the episode is one long shot with no cutting or editing, and the whole thing is done with the actors having to perform like they're doing live theater and the camera follows without stopping. A lot of shows or even films will do so inside or within a controlled environment, or limit themselves to a single location. In this case, the episode has its oner in multiple locations, as we follow Shah traversing his way through London's Brick Lane, which has a large Muslim and South Asian community, specifically Bangladesh, but other South Asians as well. We see him going into businesses but also interacting with people on the street, which shows skill in film-making.
Nabhaan Rizwan (Kaos and Station Eleven) plays Salim, the son of one of the friends of Shah's mom. The Bond audition happens near the Muslim celebration of the end of Ramadan, and Shah's mom normally hosts the holiday feast, but one of her friends takes over hosting. This friend of Shah's mom boasts how proud she is of Salim's successes, which is passive aggressive against Shah who doesn't have the same successes, perhaps. That kind of familial pride and boasting of children's successes are emblematic of South Asian culture, so that wasn't a surprise. It was nice to see Salim isn't as he might seem at first, which is this perfect son, Bollywood star, model minority type.
What is a surprise is the weird rivalry between Shah and Raj Thakkar, played by Himesh Patel (The Franchise and Station Eleven). What could have been an exploration of South Asian representation in Hollywood or even in British culture from another perspective, instead becomes a crabs-in-a-barrel scenario. It was weird because the character of Raj is never revisited. Raj does something horrible to Shah and there's never a reckoning of that and given where the show goes, Raj's whole presence wasn't necessary. Regardless, Ahmed's performance is superb and amazing. It's comparable to Yahya Abdul Mateen II in Wonder Man (2026) who also plays an up-and-coming actor of color, struggling to make it in Hollywood, but this show doesn't bog itself down with pretensions about acting the way that Mateen show did.
Rated 18+
Running Time: 30 mins. / 6 eps.
Available on Amazon Prime Video.
